LegallyBlondo

About 13 years ago, I commissioned a friend of a friend to paint a portrait as a gift for my grandma. This was not at all what I was expecting! I knew my grandma would not like it, so I kept it for myself. I almost threw it in the trash, but it has since grown on me. Perhaps, my tastes have changed somewhat. I remember the guy who painted it was a struggling, starving-artist type. His name was Jason Peck, and he had the coolest loft apartment in downtown Springfield. This was long before, the resurgence of the downtown area, and before living there was cool. At the time, he told me he paid $250 per month for the loft above the PenMac building. That was the first loft I had ever seen in my life. There are no lofts like that in Aberdeen, South Dakota. I am sure, the rent on that loft has quadrupled, at the very least. Last I heard, Jason had moved back to Chicago, and was working in a Starbucks

This is a portrait of my mom after she was voted Homecoming Queen in her high school in Brentford, South Dakota. Brentford is a farming town, which now has a population of approximately 70 people. She was the lucky girl, singled out in a graduating class of 13 students. The frame is the original one that my grandma kept the picture in, back in the mid-1960’s.